That's an interesting point. Warner appear to have shown the movie at a few drive-ins where in-car action seemed more important than screen-action, so it had a short (for the time) initial lifespan ending in June, 1994. So the Summerisle could possibly be considered the first general release poster, though with a 1979 date in that case. Confusing, ain't it?
Tommy On Sat, Jun 27, 2015 at 6:06 PM, Paul Gerrard < [email protected]> wrote: > I should add the Summerisle release is technically the first "general > release", as I seem to remember the Warner release was a selective trial > run that flopped. Does that make the Summerisle poster a re-release poster > or not?! > > Paul > www.movieposterstudio.com > > > In a message dated 27/06/2015 16:49:55 GMT Daylight Time, > [email protected] writes: > > The issue of authenticating and dating movie posters having recently > been shown to be problematic in some (possibly many) cases I would like to > invite discussion on another British film, *The Wicker Man, 1973*. I am > indebted for much of the information on this to the excellent book, *Inside > The Wicker Man : How Not To Make A Cult Classic* by Allan Brown. > > The original British one sheet with the Lion International imprint seems > to be above reproach, but that is not the case with the USA one sheets. > There appear to be three different one sheet posters, 1 from Warner Bros > depicting the wicker man and 2 showing the Nuada sun god image, both the > latter having different taglines. One is a Summerisle imprint and one an > Abraxas imprint. Auction houses have treated and dated the posters > differently, and often there is no consistency even within the same > company. Heritage, for example, over the years have sometimes listed the > Warner poster as National General, though they went bankrupt before they > could release the movie, with a 1973 and a 1974 dating, and dated the > Abraxas one as both 1979 and 1980. More interestingly, emovieposter have > listed the Summerisle one as an original 1974 release. (I have been in > touch with them and they have promised to research the matter and > communicate their findings with previous purchasers.) I bought a Summerisle > one from MoviePosterBid where it was listed as being a 1975 release (not > complaining, Rich, I’m happy with the poster). > > > Having consulted Brown’s extensively researched book the following are my > best calculations of the various posters’ actual dates. > > > Original U.S. release – Warner Bros., image of wicker man, ‘Flesh to touch > . . .Flesh to burn!’ – 1974. > > > Summerisle re-release – Nuada sun god image, ‘The residents of Summerisle > invited Sergeant Howie to their traditional May Day festival. He didn’t > expect to meet . . .’ - film due to open in November, 1978, but postponed > until January, 1979. However, Brown states that prior to scheduled original > release date ‘Summerisle Films had collaborated with Craig Millar . . . on > a publicity campaign involving posters, badges and a lavish press kit’, so > poster seems to actually date from 1978. > > Abraxas re-release – Nuada sun god, ‘Pure, brilliant, spine-tingling fun’ > – opened 26th March, 1980, so poster date of 1980 seems reasonable. > > > By coincidence, both HA and EMP had Summerisle posters listed in the same > week very recently. Heritage had a folded, fine- , dated 1980, which sold > for $50, and EMP had a rolled, good to very good, dated 1974, which sold > for $300. It is a fact that the Summerisle poster is the rarest, which > brings me to a question I had asked previously in discussions about the* > Third Man poster*, though I was not referring to that poster specifically > but in general. It is this - is a rare re-release poster worth more than > an original release poster which is fairly easily obtainable? Just > something else for MOPOers to think about. > > > > Tommy > > > > > Tommy > > > > Tommy > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: > https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 > > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: > https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
